France’s Communist Party expects to field up to 2,000 candidates in the municipal elections in May 2026.
“We will have 1,000 PCF (Parti Communiste Français) or affiliated candidates heading the lists in towns with more than 1,000 inhabitants.
"And between 1,000 and 2,000 in total, including villages,” Pierre Lacaze, vice-president of the Occitanie region and in charge of elections for the PCF, said.
The French communist party claims control of 600 municipalities, including affiliated mayors.
“We are the second largest political force on the left in terms of the number of mayors, municipal elected officials, and departmental councillors, behind the centre-left Parti Socialiste,” Lacaze said.
The PCF has long had a strong presence in grassroots politics in France, and after struggling along with other left-wing parties in the early part of the 21st century, made some gains at the last municipal elections in 2020 thanks to the continued decline of PS and a number of tactical alliances.
Even so, it lost control of historical strongholds in the greater Paris region - in the 'ceinture rouge' or red belt of working-class suburbs that surround Paris - as well as a number of medium-sized cities.
Nationally, it has endured disappointing results in recent years, picking up just 2.3 percent of the first-round vote in the 2022 presidential elections, and 2.4 percent in the 2024 European elections. It has fewer than 10 MPs in the Assembly.
But it hopes to bounce back next year in next year's election and has set a new target, modelling itself as the party of the left best positioned to take on Marine Le Pen’s far-right anti-immigration Rassemblement National in rural France.
“There will be a PCF/RN face-off in France, particularly in the north, east, and Bouches-du-Rhône. In Sète and Nîmes, in particular, it could be us or RN. These cities are campaign targets for us and the left,” Lacaze said.
Party leader Fabien Roussel will also stand in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (Nord), against RN’s Guillaume Florquin, having been elected by the municipal council at the beginning of the year following the resignation of the outgoing mayor.
“The left will make gains in the municipal elections. It’s possible, even if it’s made more difficult by the rise of RN as well as those who don’t want unity on the left, notably Jean-Luc Mélenchon.”
The four parties of the French left - the far-left La France Insoumise, the centre-left Parti Socialiste, the Greens and the Communists - have been in various electoral and parliamentary alliances since 2022.
However Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise has decided to stand alone in numerous seats in the 2026 municipal elections, dividing the left-wing vote.
Created in 1920, the French Communist party's heyday was in the 1950s, since then its influence has dwindled sharply despite its relative strength at the local level.
The party got just 2.3 percent of the vote in the 2022 presidential elections and 2.4 percent in the 2024 European elections). The party has just 10 MPs in the National Assembly.
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